'You start off with dirt and then you end up with this,' Folson said. 'Look at all those tomatoes.'

Growing up, Frank Klug watched his mom, Mary Foster, out in the backyard of their Irish Channel camelback always tending to her garden. After she passed away in 2012, the yard became "a bit of a mess," Klug said. So he set to work.

"I guess that was kind of how I dealt with it a little bit," he said. "I just got back here and cleared stuff out."

That cleaning-up process eventually evolved as Klug created his own 200-square foot backyard garden in the corner of the 2,200-square-foot key lot, part of a renovation project on the home, which is divided into three apartments -- two of which are occupied now.

In the garden, he built a dozen wooden beds where he grows tomatoes, green peppers, bay leaves, basil, celery, cucumbers, eggplants, sage, green beans, sweet potatoes, satsumas and heirloom okra, which he describes "as good as okra, but they get really big. Produce a bunch of them, and you can stuff them."

Klug also has a fig tree, an herb garden and the most recent addition: a small shade garden for flowers.

"This is the stalwart of the garden," said Klug, pointing to a lone strawberry plant, the first thing that he and his girlfriend, Clare Folson, planted. "It produces one strawberry a year," he said. "I got (the solo strawberry) the first year, Clare got (it) this year, but the plant lives forever."

The plants benefit from compost Klug makes from leaves of a giant oak tree in the yard, coffee grounds and fresh cut grass. "It all breaks down to make really good soil," he said.

He also fertilizes the plants with a homemade compost tea that says also works as an effective, organic insecticide. "Everything back here is totally organic," he said.

Klug tends to the beds mostly on weekends, but sets aside about 20 minutes every day for watering, weeding or attending to the compost. At the rear of the garden is his water harvesting system: a 275-gallon water tote hooked up to a downspout that collects rain water. "And then boom, free water," he said.

A small table with two chairs in the midst of all of the growing things provides a nice spot to hang out, enjoy some wine and a meal cooked from their harvest.

"It's just relaxing," said Folson. "It's a nice stress-reliever. And it's fun to see everything grow; you start off with dirt and then you end up with this. Look at all those tomatoes."

Folson uses oak leaves as a ground cover for the garden's paths. She also has been able to show off her artistic side, creating a series of plaques featuring some of Foster's favorite sayings to go along with pieces Foster collected over the years.

One plaque reads: Illegitimi non carborundum, a mock Latin phrase that means "Don't let the bastards grind you down." Another plaque reads: "If I know you, you're family," and a third reads: "Off, in a cloud of Hen (poop)."

The last was an expression that Foster, who wrote for the Associated Press for 23 years, would proclaim whenever she, Frank, and his older brother, Foster, would set out on a road trip. "I'm not exactly sure why," Klug said, "but it made us laugh to beat the band."